Poll: Cautious economic optimism, Obama up

A growing percentage of Americans believe their country is emerging from the Great Recession, an optimism that is boosting President Obama, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans feel the economy will get better during the coming year, up from 21 percent as recently as October: 17 percent told the poll conditions will get worst, half the number who voiced pessimism three months ago.

Obama (AP Photo)

“The calendar says it’s the dead of winter but for President Obama these results must feel like the start of spring,” said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducted the survey along with Republican opinion expert Bill McInturff.

Americans approve of the job their 44th president is doing by a narrow 48-46 percent margin, Obama’s first positive rating since last June. Forty-five percent say they approve of the President’s handling of the economy, an unspectacular showing but higher than he has received for a half-year.

Congress still gets rock-bottom ratings.

By a 13-80 percent margin, the public disapprove of the job that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are doing.

Both pollsters drew conclusions from the survey.

“The President still has a very long road ahead of him, but for the first time in a long time he has the wind at his back,” Hart told MSNBC.

McInturff said of his party: “Republicans had better bring their ‘A’ game to the election in November as today’s results are a reminder: As attitudes about the economy improve, so does President Obama’s standing.”